i remember dirt,water and mud use to collect on the top and run into the bearings, causing the bottom bearings to crunch.
we use to cut up old inner tubes and place these over the bottom cup, but you eventualy got the chrome or paint on the top of your forks damaged.
of course this was before seaed bearings were around, making sound like 1826 arernt i
we also cleaned our frames with grease to stop rust forming, but then all the shit and dust would stick to it, making cleaning hard, it probably was 1826